KayLynn Deveney’s photographs explore »storybook ranch-style« homes built throughout the American Southwest in the 1950s and ‘60s, when developers applied fairytale-style aesthetics to ranch house exteriors. This book, the first time these houses are the subject of a published photographic work, highlights personalized details outside the home resulting in photographs that reach beyond description to become metaphorical family portraits of those living inside. It tells us about a fading vision of the American dream, the last indications of a zeitgeist that encouraged Americans to aspire to an idealized vision of family and home.

KayLynn Deveney is a lecturer in photography at the Belfast School of Art, Ulster University in Northern Ireland. Her work has appeared in group and solo exhibitions internationally and is held in collections including the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and the Portland Art Museum. She is the co-author of The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings. Deveney was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and returns there every summer.